mem card question

[infinity]

I am trying to load a saved game for FF9 and after I configure the memory card option and run the iso and select continue there is no ff9 data on the file. It worked on another emulater but PSX works better on my pc. The file extension is mcr if that helps.

[Deleted]

Mcr, that's like epsxe card, right. You can load that with pSX as well. Go to configuration, memory cards, ..., and load the card. Then load the game.

If however you don't have luck with it (I could be wrong about the mcr business), post in this thread.

[patrickp]

Makes no difference what the extension is, or even if there's an extension at all, infinity, pSX will read a memory card in the raw format, as will most other Playstation emulators. The only difference is that pSX is set up to 'see' all memory cards, while other emulators usually won't 'see' a memory card file if it doesn't have their appropriate extension, and you have to type the name in.

Sounds like there may be something wrong with your .iso image: .iso is a poor format for ripping Playstation games to; try ripping your game to another format: .bin/.cue is better, and will work with many games, but the best formats are CloneCD's .ccd/.img/.sub and Alcohol's .mdf/.mds ones. Alcohol do a free, ripping only, version of their Alcohol 52%. See the HOW TO: Make Disc Images thread for advice on how to use it.

Alternatively, to check whether your rip is the problem, try playing the game directly from the CDs. Some versions of this game (the PAL ones) are copy protected and will only play in a drive that can read the subcode from the CD; since, apparently, you can reach the Play/Continue etc options, this would not appear to be a problem. What are the game IDs for your discs?

Is this memory card one you've saved yourself or one you've got elsewhere? Most online saves are usually in the .gme (dexdrive format), which won't play in an emulator without being converted to the raw format that emulators can read. If it's your own, how did you create it, and have you checked in the Playstation memory card editor that there's a valid save on it - start the emulator without a game and with your controller set to Normal type, open the Configuration and set the card in one of the slots on the Memory cards tab, then close Configuration and let the emulator run to the BIOS page. Use your controller to open the memory card editor: if your card has valid saves, you should see a little picture representing each save.

It's also possible that, if you downloaded your save, that it's for a different region than your game. In this case, you need to go to the Memory Card Conversion Requests thread and ask the nice Mr Gamesoul Master to convert your save for you. You'll need to be able to tell him what region the save is for and, particularly, what region (again, game ID is best) your game is.

Edit: I see that Mika got there first...

[infinity]

herra said:

Mcr, that's like epsxe card, right. You can load that with pSX as well. Go to configuration, memory cards, ..., and load the card. Then load the game.

If however you don't have luck with it (I could be wrong about the mcr business), post in this thread.

ya epsxe that was what I was using before but I had to many problems with it and psx works perfectly. and I should mention the file was originally gme file. I will look at that thread but a question psx does not always format the mem card you use with psx right?

[patrickp]

No, pSX creates the memory card but never formats it. Most games will format the card automatically on use but some won't - in that case, you need to go to the Playstation memory card editor as I described; opening the card in this will format it.

An ePSXe memory card should work fine in pSX if it's for the same (same=same region, not just game title) game; if it doesn't, it may have got corrupted somehow, or you may have read/write permission issues: check that the permissions on your pSX folder (if that's where you keep memory cards etc) are set to read/write.

Edit: Did you convert your card properly from .gme, then, infinity? Use Shendo's MemcardRex converter or go to Aldo's Tools for a selection of Playstation Emulator utilities, including memory card editors.

Note that Mika's link is to the Memory Card Conversion Requests thread and specifically for getting the region for your memory card saves changed. If the problem lies elsewhere, this won't help, and if this is the problem, you will, as I said before, need to tell GM what region your game is.

@mika: no, you're quite correct about the .mcr extension.

[infinity]

patrickp thx your suggestion worked I redownloaded the file and converted it with psxmemtool, the first time I only renamed the file. I did not know doing it that way would affect the save.

[patrickp]

Excellent, infinity. Yes, .gme is actually a different format to a Playstation emulator memory card, so it has to be converted. .gme is the format for a DexDrive, a device for reading/writing to actual Playstation memory cards with a PC.

However, if your game actually is in the .iso format, I'd recommend re-ripping it to a better format (see the struck-through section of my first post). You may be saving yourself a lot of headaches later: .iso is not a good format for Playstation games.

[infinity]

oh I ripped them in .img format. I saw that was in that list in your other post, should I keep um that way or rip again?

[patrickp]

No, that's one of the best formats, infinity. In fact, European PAL versions of the game will only play in that format or in the .mdf/.mds one. But it's misleading to refer to CD images generally as 'isos' because .iso is a specific CD format.

[Deleted]

patrickp said:

@mika: no, you're quite correct about the .mcr extension.

Hooray!
There are so many different memory card extensions out there that I don't even try to keep track of what is raw data with just different extension, and what is actually a different kind of file (gme, for example).

I only use pSX .bin cards anyway.